Snugbury’s Ice Cream Constructs a Giant Straw Bale Dalek in the UK

Nerd Alert! Doctor Who fanatics know it’s the 50th Anniversary of the Doctor traveling through time to save the world. And what better way to celebrate than to build a giant working Dalek. For years, Snugbury’s Ice Cream has been building giant straw sculptures near Nantwich to promote their seasonal offerings and this year, it’s all about Doctor Who. Their 35 ft tall Dalek straw sculpture celebrates their DaLICK ice cream cone and even moves and makes sounds, but don’t worry, it can’t actually exterminate anyone.

For the last 10 years, Snugbury’s has been building large straw bale sculptures in their field, which sits alongside the A51 Chester Road in Nantwich. With the help of Mike Harper, Director of Harbook Engineering, Snugbury’s has built a polar bear, a cyclist in honor of the London Olympics, a meerkat, Big Ben, and much, much more. They asked their fans what they should build this year, and they responded with lots of options, one of which was the Royal Baby. The most popular idea though was to build a Dalek, which is the oldest and most crazed of Doctor Who’s adversaries.

The straw Dalek stands at a height of 35 feet and features a five ton steel infrastructure packed with six tons of straw. The ice cream shop estimates that it took about 700 man hours to complete construction. This year’s sculpture is by far the most advanced and features a rotating head and gun and plays the Dalek’s notorious audio – “exterminate, exterminate!” Besides celebrating the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who, news was just released announcing that the 12th Doctor Who will be played by Peter Capaldi!